"The armadillo has a hard outer shell and can curl up into a ball leaving no soft body parts exposed to danger (a bit like a woodlouse). The armadillo also has long claws which the armadillo uses for digging burrows and hunting for insects in the earth."

"Despite the armadillos odd shape, most armadillos can also reach a top speed of nearly 30 mph so can easily outrun most jungle predators." 01-09

"This unit will help children appreciate the place spiders have in the world and will lessen the fear of spiders caused by misunderstandings. They will begin activities such as building a spider habitat, constructing a web and reading about spiders to develop the theme. There are more than 30,000 different types of spiders known to scientists! Most of them are very tiny animals that help people by eating insects. The banana spider, the trap-door spider, the purse-web spider, the garden spider, and the grass spider are just a few of the interesting animals we're going to learn about." 08-12

"Fleas are small, agile insects that live off the blood of other animals, usually your furry and harmless cat or dog. Fleas can be a real problem when they invade a household and its inhabitants. Here's an outline of the different ways to eradicate fleas in both your house and on your pets."

"By nearly any measure, the most successful animals on the planet are the arthropods. They have conquered land, sea and air, and make up over three-fourths of all currently known living and fossil organisms, or over one million species in all." Arthropods include spiders, insects, and others. 3-00

"Biting red ants, or 'Siafu' in Kiswahili live in colonies, but unlike most ants, do not have a permanent home. The ants range from 1 to 15 mm long, hunt at night, and hide in a hole in the ground or in a tree during the day, They shift locations as the insect, and sometimes frog-like, prey is exhausted. The Riverine Forests of Serengeti, being dark and moist, have Siafu hunting all night long and all day as well. They form either highways as they travel from their lair to the hunting field or fans when they are actively hunting. Siafu hunt by sensing the carbon dioxide that insects and animals breath out." They may attack humans, even if you leave them alone. 6-04

"Bees, wasps, and ants from the group of insects known as the hymenopteran order and other invertebrates have males with only half the usual complement of chromosomes. These insects and invertebrates comprise 20 percent of all animals." 10-04

"Although chipmunks are usually found near the ground, they are excellent climbers. In its northern range the chipmunk goes underground about the end of October but sleeps deeply only during the coldest period. Food for the winter is stored in the burrow. Chipmunks eat nuts, seeds, berries, and insects. Although they are numerous, these animals are not serious threats to crops."

"Shrews eat insects, spiders, slugs, and other small invertebrates. Some species are dependent upon plant matter, but most will eat any kind of meat. Shrews are cannibalistic and will readily kill and eat each other, or feed upon ones caught in traps or other enclosed areas. In western Interior Alaska, shrews will feed on blackfish that have come to the surface at holes in frozen-over lakes." 4-05

"They eat anything available, but prefer small animals; they are economically important as destroyers of insects and slugs that harm crops. Shrews are easily startled and will jump, faint, or drop dead at a sudden noise. They are vicious fighters, killing and eating larger animals, such as mice, as well as other shrews." 4-05

"The fast-moving adults run down their prey. Some tiger beetles can run at a speed of 5 mph. For its size it has been suggested that they are the fastest running land animals. Some tiger beetles in the tropics are arboreal, but most run on the surface of the ground. They live along sea and lake shores, on sand dunes, around playa lakebeds and on clay banks or woodland paths."

"Tiger beetles have been considered as good indicator species and have been used in ecological studies on biodiversity." 06-06